Please pray for our beloved little Landon Kutscher, as he will have one of his kidneys removed on Tuesday morning in St. Louis. Last week, a 5cm tumor was discovered on the kidney. They will remove it and analyze it immediately to find out if it is cancerous, and then proceed from there. We are all very hopeful.


This news has been first and foremost in our thoughts this week. We did get the big tree down. I made a trip to the Shipshewana Flea Market, in an effort to avoid the whole thing. (Also, I got stopped for speeding on the way, but don't worry, just a warning ticket. The officer asked me where I was going in such a hurry, "umm to the flea market, sir"). Anyway, I still did not manage to escape the tree chopping extravaganza. As I turned the corner on Hickory Hill Drive, I noted that the air was heavy with testosterone, and that the mighty trunk still stood. Oh, the men that were in my yard - crane men, tree cutting men, my men, old men, neighbor men, and boys on bikes. How they love watching a big one come down. The boys counted nearly two-hundred rings on the oak.









Recipe of the Week: I was in charge of the cookie table at church today. I made chocolate chip cookies, and these cream cheese sugar cookies and Reese's peanut butter cookies shown here. The recipe for the sugar cookies can be found in the November 2007 posts. Here's the recipe for the peanut butter cup cookies:



Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 & 1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon soda
1 pkg small Reese's peanut butter cups



Mix all the ingredients, except the peanut butter cups. Form dough into 1 inch balls and place in ungreased mini muffin pans. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until golden brown. Remove from oven and place a peanut butter cup into each cookie. Yields 4 dozen cookies.

Menarda, or Bee Balm, is a great addition to the flower bed because it looks good for a long time and the hummingbirds like it. It's prime-Menarda-time here in northern Indiana, and we're seeing a lot of daylily activity as well.

Bob was on vacation this week, but I worked for Sally at the park department. He spent his time trying to get things going on our new addition, and by that, I mean the deck and big tree removal mentioned in last week's post. Alas, it did not happen because the guys went up the tree, cut a couple of limbs, got worried, and came back down. They decided they needed a crane, and we haven't heard a peep from them since. So, we've had more tree trimmers come out and give estimates and after some discussion, it was decided that the beech tree would have to go, also, so Bob took that down, with some help from neighbors, this afternoon. We also got some new carpeting for the family room on Thursday.

My sister's dog, Puppa Sade, is missing from my family dog cartoon lineup. She's been on the drawing board for a long time and I'm feeling guilty about it. It's because she's hard to draw, and I'm not sure why, but I think it's her ears. Puppa Sade is a very nice little Shih Tzu. She sort of reminds me of a Furby. You remember Furbies. They said things like "Feed me," and "Yum," and they didn't like loud noises. Oh, and they said "Coco," and I don't know if the one we had was named Coco or if they all said that, or what. Anyway, Puppa Sade, in her Shih Tzuiness, looks a little like a Furby, and she has one eye that's somewhat askew, which makes her look a little like the late character actor, Jack Elam, who lost lost the sight in his eye when a fellow boyscout threw a pencil at him at a troop meeting.

I considered drawing Puppa Sade as the typical googly-eyed Shih Tzu, like this:

But she never wears her hair like this, so it's inaccurate. For now, this is the best I can do, unless any of you have can offer me assistance. And, I hope that I have not offended anyone in my family by making light of Puppa Sade's eye affliction, because she's a wonderful dog, who almost never barks.

Recipe of the Week: Is one that I found in the American Profile magazine that comes out with the Saturday paper. It's pretty tasty, but rich, so you might want to serve it with a simple vegetable.

Crabmeat au Gratin

1/3 cup unsalted butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 medium celery stalk, finely chopped

1/2 cup flour

2 (12-ounce) cans low-fat evaporated milk

2 egg yolks

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 pound fresh crabmeat, picked over for shells and cartilage

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 11 X 7 inch baking dish. Melt butter in a large skilled over medium heat. Add onion and celery; cook until onions are translucent, about 6 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add flour and stir until well blended. Cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly. Add a ladle of milk mixture to beaten egg yolks; stir well. Pour egg mixture back into milk mixture in skillet. Add salt, cayenne and black pepper; book, stirring until thickened, about 5 minutes.

Place crabmeat in a medium bowl. Add sauce and mix gently but thoroughly to blend. Spoon into prepared pan and sprinkle with cheese. Bake, uncovered, 25 minutes, or until cheese melts and begins to lightly brown.

"If you're being chased by an angry bull, and then you notice you're also being chased by a swarm of bees, it doesn't really change things. Just keep running." Jack Handey

Flip-flops on the Prairie. No, of course these zipper-flowered flip-flops have nothing to do with the 1885 classroom, but somehow, it just didn't seem to matter to us. We made them anyway. Rest assured that we did plenty of 19th century activities and crafts. We cooked Swedish potatoes and johnny cakes over the fire and churned butter and made lemonade and ice cream (which set up in record time this year). It was a very cool summer camp - the first one I can remember that required sweaters and jackets. We jumped rope and had a spelling bee and played croquet. Lori brought Baleigh up and stayed to help. It was her fifth One Room Schoolhouse summer camp.

Here is a picture of the teams showing off their scavenger hunt finds, and another displaying all of the cool stuff we made: gourd bowls and dippers, clay pinch pots, God's Eyes, and dirt candles. We also painted on sandollars. Everybody had a great time. We always do. I think it's because the schoolhouse attracts a certain desirable kind of clientele. Hooligans and rif-raff rarely darken our doors.

On the evening of July 3rd, Bob and I packed up dilled chicken salad on croissants, pasta salad, and the world's best brownies and drove down to Conner Prairie to meet Lindsey and Brent for a Symphony on the Prairie - Stars and Stripes Concert. The concert and fireworks were great, but it was the fourth largest crowd in the 28 years of Symphony on the Prairie concerts. That's correct, the fourth largest crowd in 28 years. It took us 2 hours to get out of the parking lot. On the drive down there, I suddenly remembered that I had to have a raspberry-white chocolate cheesecake ready to be picked up at 10:00 AM on the 4th. Well, we got home at 2:30 AM and I baked the cheesecake and did't get to bed until 5:00 AM, and then had to get up at 9:00 to finish it up, as it was a two-parter. Anyhoo, I felt kind of crappy after that, so we opted out of going up to Sylvan Lake for their fireworks on Saturday night. Here's Lindsey , at the concert, wearing red and blue, and Brent eating melon, in Purdue-wear.

On Sunday, Bob, Rob, Andrew, and Mike worked on taking our deck down, because they're coming to take the big tree down this week. It was scheduled for Tuesday, but the tree guys dropped by this evening and thought it was supposed to happen tomorrow (Monday), so Bob worked until dark to get the deck off so they can proceed. I hope this whole thing comes off without injury or property damage. Michael managed to whack himself near the eye with a crowbar. I'm working for Sally at the park department this week, so I won't be home tomorrow. Please pray with me for a safe and happy ending to this project. Here's Bob hugging our big tree goodbye. How we will miss it. It supported our beloved hammock and was home to many of our critters. What a pilgrimage of retreating raccoons I expect there will be tomorrow!

From the Archives: Birthday wishes to our July firecrackers, Maw-Maw and Candace. Here's a picture of Maw-Maw and me, from 1958, and one of Candace and Rob taken in 2008 at her prom. Candace turned twenty, and Maw-Maw is older than Candace.

I even had a recipe for you tonight, but I really think this is enough for one week, already, so I'm saving it for the next post. But, I'll leave you with one last thought regarding the celebration of the birth of our nation - from Maddie, the Amazing Barking Dog, Slobbery Stella, Bonnie the Barbarian, Little Roxanne, and Puppa Sade (not pictured):